Mercedes-Benz Said About Prabowo's Directive Using Maung Pindad As A State Vehicle

MV3 Maung SUV. (Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Some time ago, the President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) Prabowo Subianto revealed that he wanted to use the Maung car produced by Pindad as an official state vehicle.

Not only that, he planned that all ministers, deputy ministers, director generals, and other high-ranking government officials should use vehicles produced by the nation itself.

"So I have planned most likely that later all ministers, all deputy ministers, director generals, officials may be at the governorship level, the mayor should use vehicles made by the Indonesian nation itself," Prabowo was quoted as saying by VOI in his speech some time ago.

Thus, the 8th President of the Republic of Indonesia will have two state vehicles, namely the Mercedes-Benz S680 Guard and Maung Garuda.

Responding to this, Sales & Marketing Director of PT Inchcase Indomobil Distribution Indonesia, Kariyanto Hardjosoemarto said that his party was proud and supportive if any domestically produced vehicles were used by the president.

"Our status is as part of the Indonesian nation as a child of the nation, we are certainly proud if there are domestic production vehicles used by our president," said Kariyanto when met by the media at Wisma Habibie-Ainun, Kuningan, Jakarta, Wednesday, November 13.

Nevertheless, Kariyanto added that his party will always be ready to support various state events if they regain trust.

"We are always ready to support state events," added Kariyanto.

Previously, Mercedes-Benz had been trusted in providing car units for the President of the Republic of Indonesia's operations since Soekarno, which uses Mercedes-Benz 600 with the code W100.

This continued to the 2nd President Suharto with the Mercedes-Benz 500 CELL W126 model, then this continued to the 3rd President BJ Habibie with the W140 S-Class, then Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) with the W116 S-Class.

The S-Class model continues to be trusted by several next Indonesian presidents such as Megawati Soekarno Putri with W140 and S600 Guards used by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo.